Shakyshoot

I went to pick up my new Smith & Wesson 629-6 Classic today. A miracle happened and I wasn't delayed by the DOJ, so I took it straight to the range. Ran a couple of patches through it, hit it with a few drops of oil, and started shooting. I didn't bring that much ammo, since I expected to get delayed. I had 18 rd of HSM 44 spl cowboy action, 12 rd of HSM 44 Mag cowboy action, and 18 rd of Herter's 44 mag. The first 2 are quite mlld, and the Herter's is a typical magnum range load rated at 749 Ft/lb energy. Nothing like a bear load, but hardly a powder puff.
The gun shot great. Nice trigger in SA and DA. It went a little low for me. I moved it up a couple of clicks, but didn't want to go wild on sight adjustments the first day. The first picture shows the target shot with the last cylinder, Herter's 44 mag single action. Only 10 yards, but I'll take a 1" group on the first time out. The other target was double action with the HSM magnum cowboy loads.
I found the recoil very manageable with the hotter ammo. I was going to get the rubber grip till I found out the rubber doesn't cover the backstrap. Glad I got the wood, cause it looks great and is very comfortable for me. I don't expect to shoot 200 or even 100 magnums in a day, so no plans to switch over to rubber. The fit and finish is great and the gun looks terrific. Very happy so far.

north country gal

Yup, that's a 629, all the way. Great gun, not to mention great shooting. You're going to have a lot of fun with that one. Looking forward to more of your 629 reports.

RetiredSeabee

That is a beauty and really pretty targets.
Good choice on the grips they look way better than rubber.
I have a little 38 special snub that I put rubber Hogues on thinking they would feel better shooting. Turned out to be worse.

Terry_P

Now all you need is a shoulder rig and walk around and say "make my day" a lot.

That is a fine looking and shooting revolver. Congrats and enjoy.

44s Rock

+1 Great shooting!

bearcatter

That looks really fine. If it were me, I'd be lucky to keep them on the paper. If you keep that up, you'll have to call yourself something besides Shaky........

RidgeRunner

Dang it Terry, you beat me to the "make my day" line.
Congratulations on a straight shootin', purty "keeper" Shaky.
Those wood grips were a good choice.
You definitely need a shoulder rig.

Machinist

Beautiful!

Shakyshoot

Took my 44 Mag to the range today, armed with my new Cabela's shooting gloves. Bought them online, and I don't think I would have had I looked at them in the store. They're very thin with little or no padding. I think a better route would have been to scrounge the thrift stores for some fleece lined suede glloves or leather work gloves, and just cut off the fingers. I think a couple of Band-Aids on my shooting hand would provide as much cushion. I shot 12 rd of 44 spl and 24 rd of 44 mag. Some twinges of hand pain with the magnums, but at least I haven't developed a flinch, as evidenced by the target shown, which was a better than 1" group at 12 yd. (Herter's 44 mag shot single action)

I was the first one at the range, and shot most of my magnum ammo before anyone arrived. It's a good thing I looked over at them before continuing, because when I looked, they were putting on their hearing protection. Do that OUTSIDE the indoor range, dummies.

north country gal

Nice group, Shaky. Smart move to go slow and build up to handling 44 mag recoil. It's the way I did, way, way back in the day, with my first 44 mag and I still work back into shooting the 44 mag, slowly, when I've been away from the 44 mag for awhile. You gotta respect the recoil and the ever present danger of developing a flinch.

Another option for a glove is a gel-filled mountain biking glove. It's what I use when I need a glove.

Shakyshoot

Thanks for the tip. Okay, I took your advice and went out in search of biking gloves. Wound up going 4 places. Target and Walmart had garbage, so I went miles in the other direction to a strip mall that has both Dick's and REI. I wound up getting the most expensive ones I looked at, for $ 35 at REI. They had the thickest gel and were the only ones where the gel runs much up the base of the thumb.



I also bought 100 rd of 44 Spl and a 250 rd can of 44 Mag, from LAX Ammo. They had free shipping on $ 99+ of their own branded ammo. The 44 Mag was 48 cwnts a round for new, not reloads. It's on the mild side but not cowboy action mild, 240 gr @ 1026 FPS.

north country gal

Glove looks good. Yeah, I mentioned mountain biking glove because that kind of bicycling gives your hands much more of a beating than road biking. (I'm pretty hardcore mountain biker.) The leather gel-filled types like that will last forever, though. Hope it works for you.

Shakyshoot

Got my ammo from LAX and shot some of it today. I shot 20 rd of 44 SPL and 18 rd of 44 Mag, then went on to shoot 40 rd of .45 with the Range Officer and 100 rd of 22 with the Volquartsen. The 44 Spl ammo is mild..really mild, like it would be soft shooting for 45 ACP ammo. It's even softer shooting than the HSM cowboy action ammo, and doesn't leave your head in a cloud of black smoke like the other stuff. The 44 mag is a little de-tuned vs "normal" range 44 mag, but still strong enough to give you the "magnum experience." As much as I like the looks of the wood on my 629, I've decided I'm going to have to order the ugly Hogues for the 500 mag. (and I did) After all, I'm shooting the gun for enjoyment, not grizzly protection, and inflicting pain kind of defeats that purpose. Should have The Hogues next week.

The best I did was this 7/8" 6 shot group. 12 yards in single action with the magnum ammo. I struggle at double action with this gun. The DA pull is much heavier than any of my .357's.

north country gal

Good move on the grips for the X frame Smiths. Will definitely help. Did that on a standard 629 and noticed a nice improvement.

As for the looks thing, well, I long ago threw that one in the trash when it comes to shooting the 44 mag. Here's my tank of a 44 mag in my TC Encore 44 mag with a 12" barrel and Pachmayr grips. Darn near weighs as much as a rifle, but it is purely a target gun. Used to shoot it in the smaller Contender frame, but even that got painful, at times, so moved up to the Encore. Keep in mind that with these TCs, there is no cylinder/barrel gap. That, plus the longer barrel gives the 44 mag a big velocity increase, which, of course, also translates into even more recoil.

Shakyshoot

Got the ugly Hogue "Tamer" grips from S&W yesterday. They shipped pretty fast--2 days, but FedEx Smartpost was pretty slow. I took it to the range today, and it's a whole different gun. (In a good way) I shot 12 rd of 44 Spl and 24 rd of 44 Mag. Probably would have shot more if I'd brought more ammo. I shot mostly at 15 yd today, and kept most of the on a 3" bull.



I shot this one with full house 44 mag, but only at 10 yd


I shot this one at 15 yd with 44 Spl at 15 yd. All single action. I didn't even take a DA shot today.


I don't think I'll be taking the rubber grips off anytime soon, but at least I have the nice wood if I ever want to sell the gun. Don't think I'll be doing that any time soon either.

north country gal

Nice shooting, there, Shaky. Oh, yeah, love the way the right grip can make the gun shoot like a completely different gun.

By the way, don't know if you're interested, but it's very easy to add a scope mount to a Smith revolver with adjustable sights and go with either a red dot or a pistol scope. (Weigand makes a nice mount.) I think you'll be very pleased what a 629 can do out there at 50 and even 100 yards with a red dot (my choice) or a scope. Have done a lot of that kind of shooting with a red dot setup on a 686 and a 629, even an X frame 460.

Shakyshoot

That's a heck of a target for 50 yd. I was just thinking I'd like to try a red dot on a revolver. That's all I use for my "serious" 22 shooting, and I love the "sacrilegious" Fastfire III on my Range Officer .45. I'd probably do it on a .357. All 3 of my .357's are 4", and I'm thinking my next one will be a 6" 686 or maybe even an N-frame. The 6" Smith 27 at the range has been tormenting me for almost a year. Probably not too unreasonable at $995, but it seems like a lot of money.

north country gal

Thanks.

Out to 25 yards, my scores with a red dot and good revolver sights as found on the 686 or 629 are fairly comparable. At 50, though, the lack of precision with the iron sights starts to really take its toll for me. At 100 yards, using revolver sights starts to be mostly a waste of ammo. A red dot at 100, though, is still very practical.

My TC handguns chambered in revolver cartridges mostly wear red dots for this reason. I never even shoot them closer than 50 yards. Shot these, last week. Explains why I just keep drifting right back to these handguns.


I agree, for strictly range work, that big N frame 357 would be tough to beat. Our well worn, early 70s vintage 28-2 357 just keeps shooting and shooting and who knows how many previous owners it's had.

Shakyshoot

Had the 44 mag out to the range today, as well as the Range Officer .45 and the VQ Scorpion. Very hot in there today, and they stuck me in the crappier bay without the computerized target runners, but still a pretty good day. I didn't shoot that well with the .45, but at least my Fastfire didn't keep shutting off like it did the last time. Somebody said to bend the battery contacts inward slightly, and that seems to have solved it. Check out this 25 yd offhand slow fire target. 1 7/8" group with full power 44 mag ammo. The actual score would have been better if I hadn't insisted on messing with the sights Basd on one 10 yd string with different ammo. I shot high with the milder LAX 44 mag, and put the sight down 2 clicks. Then I was low with the hotter Herter's ammo.




They have a couple of revolvers I wouldn't mind owning. A Redhawk 6" 44 Mag with a Fastfire 2 that they want $ 799 for, and they just got a Performance Center S&W TRR8, the eight shooter. They want $ 949 with a cheap red dot. I could get it for less brand new from Cabela's with my tricky discounts. But do I really need an 8 shooter? I load 5 in my 6 shooters more often than not. And do I want to pay almost a grand for a revolver with the internal lock? The trigger on that gun is SWEET though. The shortest and smoothest DA pull I've felt..

north country gal

We had a TRR8 that were got used at a good price, a few years back. The TRR8, is indeed, an excellent 357. Really more of a gun for the action shooting/self-defense crowd, though it was very accurate. Really couldn't justify keeping it just for punching paper, which is all we do, anymore. For paper punching, if you're going to spend that kind of money, I'd get one of the 686 Competition models designed for target work or even a Dan Wesson 715, which is still made.

As for the Redhawk, I don't think you'll be happy with that SA trigger after shooting your Smith. Redhawks have very good DA triggers and that's why folks buy them, but the SA trigger is usually pretty heavy. It's part of the design uses a single spring for both DA and SA. Beware any Redhawk that has been given the lighter spring treatment to lighten the SA pull. Those have some real potential for light strikes. The proper way to tune a Redhawk trigger is a real action job, not a spring fix. For sure, I'd try before you buy.

Super Redhawks, though, use the same lock work as the GP with independent springs for SA and DA. Supers usually have decent SA triggers and those can be easily tweaked if need be. The Supers I've had have also been very accurate. I think it's the better choice for target work. The grip is definitely more comfy to use with 44 mags than the Redhawk grip, too. In fact, I'd rate the SRH as the most comfy to shoot 44 mag I've ever shot. Ugly, yes, but they shoot great.